IdahoPeg

So the pup and I headed out to some of my favorite bench areas above the creek; good thing I checked the depth of the water at the crossing before trying to take the side x side through like I normally did in previous years....mid-thigh high, so carried gear and pup to other side and hiked just under a mile to first site: A granite nob that's been hit by myself and several friends the past couple seasons, but it still keeps squeaking out little tiddlers: Got a couple there, then moved one to another spot where several more were found after moving some of the old-timers hand-stackings: Don't need a gym membership when you do this as a hobby! :-) Anyway, hit a few more areas with some success, but the creme de la creme (or should I say, creme de la crumb?) was this area I dug for hours and cleaned out at least 25 tiny bits....what fun the Monster was having! (To better get in under the roots etc, the Goldbug2 would have been better, but we managed) The next day and a half hit a couple more spots and ended up with this for my Bench Tour Total.....a lot of work(i.e. fun) for 1.4g lol! Pup and I had a great few days at the cabin.....but it's time to get the zed and 2300 out again, so off to California later this week! Cheers and Happy Hunting! p.s. kiwijw, I was inspired by your posts! :-)

Thanks guys! JW: they were about 5-6" I think Klunker: they'd be calling me "PegLeg Peg" if I tried to play with that stuff!!! lol :-)

Hi George...mine lasts all day. You and Linda will have fun with the Monster! :-)

Finally got the GM1000 out on the lode mine gravels I have access to. The small coil picked through the iron and trash easier than my GB2 did, and with it being so hot it was REALLY nice not having headphones on. Dug lots of crap, but eventually got a couple nice specimens. Tomorrow, up to one of my favorite benches if I can get across the creek! :-)

Wow! Nice chunk of gold and its little brother! Great job Lunk. :-)

What a great find! Your Sweetie will love it! :-)

Wow...some nice finds! Way to go if those bigger ones are gold.....I've been tricked when detecting in hard rock gravels/sulfides, ended up being weird copper mix byproducts in my case. Hope yours are the real deal! :-)

Amazing gold...great find! Congrats! :-)

Nice gold, Paul! Way to go! :-)

Great story and nice chunky nuggets! I usually get a big 'ol skunk when looking for new areas! :-)

Here's one of my favorites from Rye Patch....

Congrats on a beautiful big nugget! :-)

Wow! Congrats to you....how exciting it must be to find an area like that! :-)

Hey, you got me beat this trip. I just got back from several days in northern Nv today...hunted Rye Patch for 2 1/2 days and got 3 little nuggets which only totaled 1.36grams....better than a skunk though! Would've liked to have run into you....good luck on the rest of your hunt!

Do you mean up to "old reliable" bench? I use it for when I'm on a serious skunk and need to see gold, no matter how small, lol. That's why I took the Monster up there to learn it....wanted a place I knew I'd have a good chance finding small gold if I tried hard enough! Now, I'll spend my time up at cabin looking for new spots ?⛏

OK, I know people are probably tired of looking at my Fly-Poo gold, but check out the amazingly tiny piece in the middle that the GM1000 heard no problem this afternoon up at my "old reliable" bench! Again, I had to take out some brush and dig down a little to get these 6 little guys. Anyone who knows me, knows I love my GB2, but I think I'm starting to love the Monster more....it's such a fun machine! ?

JW, I was using the 5" coil....and I, and I'm sure the other forum members, appreciate your input and expertise! Thanks! Happy Nugget Hunting⛏?

At my age I'm at the "give me my self-contained toy hauler trailer at base camp" to do my duty! ;-)

Thanks for your comments kiwijw...up here at my cabin all I have is fly speck gold lol! But I definitely need more time with the Monster, and particularly in hotter ground, to better see its capabilities/advantages over my GB2. p.s. just viewed your 1st video on YouTube.... nice job!?

Nice nugget! Great job! :-)

Picked up my GM1000 from Gerry on Friday, then after doing chores up at the cabin got it out yesterday and today. Used the larger coil for scouting out a new spot and after a couple hours of no decent targets yesterday, went over the same area with my GB2. Still nothing, so at least I didn't miss anything in that area, but I wasn't real comfortable with the Monster yet. So today, after yacking with VA Nurse Paul last night and Scott T today...both singing its praises, I put the small coil on it and went to my "old reliable" bench to see if I could squeak out another baby nugget. Moved rocks and dug up some sagebrush....initially hunting with trusty GB2 to get a target, then compare it with the Monster. Wow, it could hear the Fly-poo AU I find up there, and the disc was pretty reliable! I found 3 pieces using the GB2 first, then once I was more comfortable with how the Monster responds, it sniffed out 6 more! I noticed on some "iffy" signals that the Goldbug heard, the Monster picked them up a bit better. I was using manual 10 sensitivity and All Metal/deep, and as others have mentioned, it does false if you hit a rock etc. Not using headphones and having no threshold hum was actually nice for a change too. Pretty cool machine....tomorrow I'm going to hit the hard rock gravels and see how it does. :-)

Looking forward to the field test and tips for optimum use! Thanks.

Wow...great story and even greater gold! Congrats to all, especially to King of the Patch Rudy!

Nice job! It is really tough hunting there this year, I noticed that a couple weeks ago!

Very nice gold and good info! I'm looking forward to my GM1000 arriving too; it'll be nice to have a lightweight "grab-n-go". :-)